BBQ Contests: Blues, Views and Barbeque, The Results

I'm back from judging at the Blues, Views and Barbeque Festival in Westport, CT. Great location right on the river, good bands, good food and good organization. I hope this new competition becomes an annual event.

And the winners are....

Top 10
1. R2BQ
2. TNT
3. I smell smoke
4. Swamp Pit
5. Smoke in da eye
6. Lakeside Smokers
7. Uncle Jed
8. Central Pork West
9. Q Haven
10. ZBQ

Chicken
1. Red Planet
2. Swamp Pit
3. R2BQ
4. Smoke In da Eye
5. I Smell Smoke

Ribs
1. I like Smoke n' Lightning
2. Yankee BBQ
3. 2 Little Pigs
4. ZBQ
5. I Smell Smoke

Pork
1. TNT
2. R2BQ
3. Q Haven
4. Smoken' Dudes
5. Central Pork West

Brisket
1. ZBQ
2. Smoke In da Eye
3. Cork n' Pork
4. I Smell Smoke
5. Lakeside Smokers

Sauce
1. R2BQ
2. Purple Turtle
3. I Smell Smoke
4. Primal Meat Smokers
5. Carolina beau and a Yankee

Iron Chef
1. Yabba Dabba Que
2. I like Smoke n' Lightning
3. B.S. BBQ
4. Carolina beau
5. Smoke N Dudes

KCBS Judging

I'm back from judging Harpoon and let me tell you the Harpoon is a great event. It doesn't pay much, it only holds about 45 teams, it's not in the best location, it doesn't have indoor facilities, it usually rains, but the Harpoon has a great vibe. Something, besides the free beer, encourages the teams to put out their best.

One great thing about the Harpoon is that it attracts a couple of top teams from outside the Northeast. One team there this year was TheSlabs.com and another was Smokin' Triggers. Both are legendary on the KCBS circuit, but don't visit Yankee territory very often. Unfortunately, with KCBS judging being blind, I have no idea if I got to try any of their food.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I take my judging responsibilities seriously, as does every judge I know. I think long and hard about my scores before I commit them to paper. I always makes sure that I eat from various parts of the samples trying the middle, top and bottom, left and right sides.

I always sample whatever the cook puts in that box. If there is sliced and pulled pork, I sample all of it. If there's dark and white meat chicken, I sample all of it. I believe in giving the cook the best shot at a perfect score.

It's not always easy. Like it or not most competition barbecue is just "average." One of the most common discussions amongst cooks and judges about the judging criteria is "What is average?" "Can you define average?"

Many cooks believe that by simply getting a box in on time they deserve an "average" score. I disagree, but can average be defined? Most people say no, but I'm going to try.

A quick flashback to the points awarded in competition judging: Nine (excellent), Eight (very good), Seven (above average), Six (average), Five (below average), Four (poor), Three (bad), Two (inedible), One (disqualified). All items are judged on three criteria: Appearance (of the meat only -- not how it is presented), Taste and Texture.

So what determines an average score? Here's my take, your mileage may vary....

To receive an "average" score, a meat must meet the KCBS definition of its category. It must be barbecue. It must be properly cooked, presented well and seasoned properly. The judge must be able to taste the meat as well as the seasonings and/or sauce.

Pretty vague huh? Yeah. But to be "average" across all categories I think the definition has to be. Want details for each category? That's another bunch of posts.

At Harpoon, the scores I assigned ranged from 9 to 5. So tomorrow I'll get into some real life experiences on how I scored some of the Harpoon competition foods. We'll talk about the long and winding road from "excellent" to "average" to my lowest assigned score, the dreaded "below average".

BBQ Contests: Grillin' On The Bay

Judges and Cooks Still Needed for...

to benefit St. Mark School
Sponsored by RUB BBQ

Grillin' On The Bay
New York City's Original Barbecue Contest

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Open to the Public - Free Admission

St. Mark School
Corner of East 18th Street and Avenue Z
Brooklyn, New York

New England Barbecue Society
Sanctioned Grilling Contest
Chicken Breast, Fish, Pork and Chef's Choice

BBQ Events: The Harpoon BBQ Championship of New England

From yesterday's Boston Globe, here's a great article about the premier BBQ contest in the Northeast, The Harpoon BBQ Championship of New England.


Ray Depot of the Anchormen Competition Barbecue Team of Narragansett, R.I., inspected his team's chicken entry before submitting it to judges during the Harpoon Championships of New England. (Jason Johns for The Boston Globe)

In the South, the word "barbecue" is a noun, as in "Let's eat some barbecue." But up here, it's a verb, as in, "Let's barbecue!" And as we learned at this summer's Championships of New England Barbecue, we're doing it better than ever these days.

Fired Up!
By Erin Byers Murray | September 2, 2007

I'm inside the judges' tent at the Harpoon Championships of New England Barbecue in Windsor, Vermont, watching carefully as Frank Plankey, a heavyset man with a cheerful face sporting a baseball cap covered in collector pins, picks up a handful of shredded pork and studiously examines its coloring. Satisfied, he closes his eyes and holds the chunk up to his nose, inhaling audibly. He inhales again, then pops it in his mouth before scribbling numbers on a score card. It is the first time I've ever seen anyone regard the bouquet of a hunk of pork, but that's what Plankey and 48 other certified judges are here to do, to evaluate the culinary skills of 42 teams that are part of the fast-growing sport of competitive barbecue. This late-July fest is a major event for the New England circuit and will end with the crowning of the Team of the Year. It will also draw a record 6,000 spectators to the Harpoon Brewery over the course of two days.

Barbecue competitions are nothing new in the South, Midwest, or West, but up here they didn't catch on until the early 1990s, when a group of amateur cooks, mostly in Massachusetts, put together a friendly competition called the Pig and Pepper. The event spawned copycats and eventually an organization of teams was formed, now called the New England Barbecue Society. In 2001, Harpoon Brewery sponsored the first regional competition and since then, with help from various marketing efforts and the pastime's increasing exposure on television outlets like the Food Network, the season has grown to a dozen competitions in New England and membership has skyrocketed to 350 teams. Not bad for a sport that didn't exist here 20 years ago. One look around the festival and it's easy to see – actually to smell and to hear – the draw. The air is thick with hickory smoke and blues music; aging hippies, leather-clad bikers, 20-something couples in madras shorts, and entire families (including their dogs) wander the grounds munching on pulled-pork sandwiches and drinking Harpoon. Teams are camped out across the grounds with enormous rigs made up of smokers, kitchen equipment, RVs, and tents. Some teams, like Malden's I Smell Smoke!!!, are competition veterans that hit 20 contests each season and have 12 or more years of experience, while others, like the Pokey Smokers, a husband-and-wife team from Stow, have little more than a year of practice.

They all arrived Friday night and stayed up late tending their smokers, which were filled with entries for Saturday's barbecue categories (chicken, ribs, pork butt, and beef brisket). A separate competition will take place Sunday for grilling, where most entries are prepared over open fires, unlike traditional barbecuing, which requires longer cooking time over very low, indirect heat. Winners will earn prize money and bragging rights. Here, they compete against the best, and this year, that means teams from Kansas City and Chicago as well as a few professional chefs, like Tremont 647's Andy Husbands and his team, iQue.9

Read more »

BBQ Contest Foods: Fish

Let's take a look at some of the food we submitted at The Hudson Valley Ribfest. Here's a picture of our fish entry. It's grouper steak with a Caribbean pepper sauce. Unfortunately, I don't have the score sheets and I don't remember where it placed. But it didn't do great.

This entry was cooked by one of the Mikes following the recipe as published in Weber's Charcoal Grilling: The Art of Cooking With Live Fire by Jamie Purviance and Tim Turner. Almost. Mike followed the recipe as closely as he could, but it calls for a chunky pepper sauce which is something that is not allowed in a KCBS governed, NEBS sanctioned event. So instead he smashed and chopped up the sauce until he got what you see here. We tried to massage the sauce into the cooked fish with the hope that the sauce would still flavor the fish.

Looking at the picture, I can say it's really a mediocre presentation. I was so off on the boxes this weekend and our scores reflected that. I have no idea how this fish tasted. Mike bought two whole groupers and had them butchered (Do you butcher fish or is there another term for it?) into steaks. I've only seen grouper in filets, so this was an interesting choice, but Mike said that he had never had grouper fillet, only steak. Go figure. I wish there was more, but what you see was all the edible meat from the two fish. It all went to the judges. And they didn't like it.

Oh well, on to the lamb.

BBQ Events:

This just came into my in-box about The Great State of Maine Grilling and Barbecue Fesitval. This is another great event sanctioned by The New England Barbeque Society. I wonder who won? Whoops - also just in - I Smell Smoke wins! Congrats guys!

A smokin' good time: Barbeque cookoff begins
By Elizabeth Kenny

ekenny@seacoastonline.com

YORK, Maine — It is possible judges at Saturday's second annual Maine Grilling & BBQ Festival ate anywhere from two to three pounds of meat — each.

Despite the heat, by 1 p.m., more than 100 meat fanatics and 18 certified judges devoured ribs, chicken wings, pork, sirloin steak, grilled pizza and ice cream at Zach's Farm on Colby Turner Lane. Many will wake up and do it all over again today for the festival's final competition, which will send one talented team of cooks to the national barbecuing championship.

While the public feasted on food from local and national vendors, judges sat under a shaded tent to taste entries from 24 contestant teams, most of which traveled from within New England to compete for the Maine title.

These folks take their meat seriously.

"It's an art form, cooking barbecue," said event coordinator Vito Marotta, who has served as a judge at dozens of other festivals.

Without much chatter, judges sniffed, bit, licked and eyed the food they were given in small cardboard boxes, which allowed for a blind taste test of the food coming from the teams.

The winner of Saturday's grilling competition, which was composed of five categories — including a dessert containing blueberries — and Sunday's barbecuing competition will be announced today at 5 p.m.

Competitors Randy Leech, Ryan Briolat and Randy Briolat of Portsmouth cooked up a blueberry crème brûlée on the grill, served with a graham cracker crust. The team members, who call themselves the Puddledock Porkas, said the event is just as much about having fun as it is grilling.

A total of 25 teams will continue to compete today for more than $7,500 in prizes. Many teams said they were hoping to win some cash as reimbursement for all they have spent toward the weekend — teams spent $300 to $600 on food alone.

But most say they have their eyes on the prize, and that's not the money — it's Kansas City. Today's winner will hold the Maine State Championship and will travel to the American Royal in Kansas, one the biggest competitions in the country.

The first event, organized by Dennis Sherman of Denny Mike's Smokehouse BBQ and Deli in Old Orchard Beach, was not open to the public. Co-organizer Patty Sherman said they wanted the public to attend this year and in years to come because "people love barbecue. Throw in music and a nice day ... and it's a great thing."

BBQ Judges Needed.....

This just in....

Hey there you crazy barbeque lovin’ folks;

The 3rd Annual Hudson Valley Rib Fest has taken off beyond all imagination and is now in need of more certified judges for their event on the weekend of August 18th & 19th. Currently there are more than 60 teams that have signed up and some are coming from over 1,500 miles away. There will be nationally recognized teams as well as a presence from the Food Network so the samples will be the best ever.

The event takes place at the Ulster County Fairgrounds which is located in beautiful New Paltz, NY and really easy to get to from the New York State Thruway.

If you have been looking to judge and event that hosts some seriously famous barbeque, then you need to sign up now. Here’s the link: judges@hudsonvalleyribfest.org.

Hope to see you all there!

Mike Lee

For more info, please visit: http://www.hudsonvalleyribfest.org

BBQ Events: Harpoon 2007

Here's all the pictures I have from the legendary Harpoon - New England BBQ Championship of 2007. Theses pictures are primarily of the awards ceremony for the KCBS sanctioned barbeque event, but the batteries died out just before I could get a picture of the Grand Champions - Lunchmeat.

Here's the results of the KCBS event:

CHICKEN
I QUe
Giggling Pigs
Uncle Jed's BBQ
Q Ball
I Smell Smoke!!!

RIBS
Bastey Boys
Lunch Meat
I Que
Flaming Hogs
Anchormen

PORK
Anchormen
Bad Bones BBQ
Transformers
I Smell Smoke!!!
BBQ Guru

BRISKET
Pokey Smokers
I Smell Smoke!!!
Bad Bones BBQ Crew
Champlain Pit Crew
Howling Hogs

OVERALL
Grand Champion: Lunchmeat
Reserve: The Anchormen
I Smell Smoke!!!
I Que
Purple Turtle

Harpoon!

I just got home from the Harpoon BBQ contest in Vermont. What great time. I'll fill you in on the details later. Good night. I'm going to bed.

BBQ Events: Harpoon!

In two days, the wife and me are heading up to the wilds of Vermont so that I can lend my judging expertise to The Harpoon Championship of New England Barbecue. This contest is KCBS and NEBS sanctioned and is the Vermont State Championship.

I've heard nothing but good things about this contest and many claim that this IS the premier event in the Northeast. If you're anywhere near this contest, be sure to stop by. Me? I can't wait.

Here's some information about the contest taken directly from their website:
What is Harpoon Championships of New England Barbecue all about?

• A celebration of the best of Summer—Fresh beer, great BBQ, & live music
• The Harpoon Brewery in Windsor, Vermont offers an ideal setting for the event
• 40 BBQ Teams from all over will be competing for prize money & trophies
• A select few teams will be selling their award winning BBQ to the public
• Great live music provided by the hottest local bands from Vermont
• Come sit back, relax and enjoy the summer with friends at Harpoon Brewery
• Brewery tours offered through out the weekend

Event Date:

• Saturday, July 28th, 12:00 PM to 8:00 PM (Entrance closes at 6:30 pm)
• Sunday, July 29th, 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM (Entrance closes at 3:30 pm)
• Schedule of Events
  

Where to Come:

• At the Harpoon Brewery, 336 Ruth Carney Drive, Windsor, VT. Map/Directions
• Off Route 5, next door to Simon Pearce, exit 9 off Interstate 91
• Free parking available in the fields surrounding the event site
• Camping at the event is for competing teams only. See attached list of local campgrounds and accommodations

More Details (subject to change):

• Schedule of Events
• Door charge is $6.00 per person and does not include beer or food Children under 12 are admitted free, but must be accompanied by a parent
• Cash bars serving a selection of Vermont-brewed fresh Harpoon and UFO beer for $4.25 a pint
• Various BBQ teams will be selling a wide variety of hot delicious BBQ
• The event will be held rain or shine. Tickets not sold in advance

Competition BBQ Teams:

• At this time the event is currently sold out for 2007.

See you there?

Life on the Road

This is from the The Norwalk Advocate. It's about my friends Nancee and Greg at Purple Turtle Catering. Enjoy.

Couple on way to courtly cook-off
By Jamie DeLoma
Special Correspondent

July 6, 2007

NORWALK - By the time the smoke cleared last weekend at the I Love Barbeque Festival in Lake Placid, N.Y., Nancee Gell and Greg Hunter knew they were hot.

Beating three dozen teams spanning the continent from Florida to Vancouver, the Norwalk-based Purple Turtle Catering Company emerged with the grand championship crown, a check for $1,500 and the New York state title. They are now eligible to compete in the annual American Royal Barbecue Festival in October in Kansas City, Mo.

"There were a lot of great teams out there, and it's really special to win this festival," Hunter said.

The Norwalk teammates have not always been the barbecue aficionados they are now.

"I grew up eating burned chicken and undercooked steaks," Gell said. "I learned about barbecuing in the mid '70s, but it wasn't until we got involved with the New England Barbecue Society about seven years ago that it has become an obsession."

She said the grilling also helps to relieve the day-to-day anxiety in her job as a security specialist in Stamford.

"It's a tremendous stress reliever," Gell said. "It really lets you focus on your food, creating an artistic and good product and not let you worry about what's going on at the office or have to worry about little Johnny."

She said the competitions, which have been popular in the South and Midwest for decades but only now are growing in the Northeast, encourages participants to bring their families. Gell said she has seen people get married at the contests.

"The competition circuit is really growing leaps and bounds," said Don McCullough, executive vice president of the National Barbecue Association in Austin, Texas. "It really grew in popularity after 9/11 when people didn't want to go on expensive vacations anymore."

He said the competition has grown quickly in the Northeast over the past three or four years.

"Barbecue is coming out of nowhere," McCullough said. "It's becoming a pretty popular pastime."

Jeff Esau of Stamford, who owns Jeff's Cuisine in Norwalk, won the first international barbecue competition in Montego Bay, Jamaica, five years ago.

"Barbecuing is a process," Esau said. "It started here in America. It's an American form of art, just like the jazz and the blues."

Esau, who calls himself a barbecue historian, said the first barbecue restaurant was established in the 1840s in North Carolina. Since then, the style of cooking has grown in popularity with the advent of the Weber grill in the early 1900s and growth in their popularity in the 1950s.

"Barbecuing really took off in the 1970s, and now it's just exploded," he said. "In the South, barbecuing has always been part of life. In the Northeast, people really want to try something different. It's the hottest cuisine out there now."

Competitions are generally by category, usually beef, chicken, fish, pork and ribs and can span from January through November. Many of the contests raise money for charities as well.

Garry Howard, who is now retired and living in Puerto Rico, mentored Gell and Hunter for three years beginning in 2000 before they began competing on their own in 2003 and mentoring others.

"He really gave us a lot," Hunter said. "We are just basically giving back what we got from him."

Since then, the married Norwalk couple won about a half-dozen grilling and barbecuing competitions and finished second or third in several dozen others.

"We travel all around the country going to these contests," she said. "The camaraderie of the grilling, barbecuing community is something that can't even be described. It's like a big fraternity if you will. We get together, cook together, eat together and laugh together. Some weeks, I win; some weeks, you win."

Weekend Plans

A mad genius called Mr. Cutlets aka Josh Ozersky aka the brains behind New York Magazine's online food site recently commented to my buddy Matt aka The Hampton Smoker that Matt is the only barbecue blogger who actually cooks. I'm beginning to agree with him as another weekend is approaching where I won't be able to touch my grills. But all is not lost.

This weekend I'll be up in East Hartford Connecticut judging at the KCBS and NEBS sanctioned barbeque contest, Bluesaque. On Saturday, I'll be judging the grilling contest and listening to some great bands like The Mambo Sons, Electric Lady, Tinted Blue, Jeff Pitchell and Magic Red & the Voodoo Tribe. C'mon out to Gengras Harley-Davidson (10am, 221 Governor St.)and check out some great food and outstanding blues.

Sunday it's up to Albany for my nephew's high school graduation. It's going to be a busy weekend.

And to the bastard that stole my tomato plant - screw you!